Immigration to Barrayaran Empire
The Nexus population mobility is scarce and easily controllable: therefore the immigration is more a choice made by guest governments rather than a phenomenon experienced by worlds of destination. The Barrayaran Empire is a complex polity, with different societies and different social needs: Komarr is an advanced planet, with the strict need of conciliating population and domed cities growths, while Barrayar is a growing society with abundant resources compared to the relatively small population, and the need of ensuring political and cultural compatibility as well as increasing the total number of population; finally, Sergyar is a settlement colony, with some of problems of both Komarr and Barrayar. Fight against external immigration is a significant contribution to security of the Empire. It is carried out through activities involving coordination of border space-jump controls and management and strict control of foreign residing in the country. Action to combat illegal immigration involves development and adoption of measures and initiatives targeting immigration dynamics. The Central Directorate for Immigration is set to develop strategies to counter immigration and dealing with any issue arising from the presence of foreign nationals on the national territory. The Directorate is in charge of gathering and analysing information on measures taken to monitor, prevent and fight against immigration by sea and by land. Handling of immigrants leaving on the national territory is entrusted to the immigration centres falling within the responsibility of the Department for Religion and Immigration. Barrayar Barrayar is a society in almost-constant need of qualified and culturally compatible immigration flow, in order to reach a "secure number" for its own development. The Barrayaran Immigration Bureau (BIB) is the Barrayaran executive body that, operated directly by the Directorate of Immigration Policies of the Ministry of Interior, implements the state policy on immigration and also performs law enforcement, control supervision and provision of public services functions in the field of immigration. The Bureau is also responsible for issue of resident registration and immigration control in Barrayar. Due to the position of the planet, the Bureau is mostly concerned with the provision of residence permit. The Barrayaran Immigration Bureau has territorial offices in every planetary spaceport. The director of the Barrayaran Immigration Bureau is Konstantin Romodanovsky, a former police officer, who is also the Deputy Director of the Directorate of Immigration Policies. History Since the beginning of the Vorkosigan Regency, Barrayar has launched a massive qualified immigration programme, believing that having heavily suffered from the not-so-ancient Cetagandan invasion, Barrayar must "populate-and-improve or perish": the Imperial Department of Immigration was established by Prime Minister Count Vortala in 2909. During these first years, thousands of Galactics migrated to Barrayar and over 50,000 Earth and other worlds immigrants went to Barrayar under the Searched Immigration Scheme. The scheme was open to citizens of worlds similar to Barrayar. The qualifications were straightforward: immigrants needed to be in sound health and under the age of 35 years. There were initially only few skill restrictions. In keeping with policies of the previous decades, Prime Minister Racozy in 2922 announced a preference for promoting immigration to Barrayar of mainly Earth-European or European-derived settlers. Also Japanese or Japan-derived immigrants were accepted. Immigration changed deeply since 2940s. In 2947, the Government relaxed the Immigration Act favouring people coming from "advanced democracies" and granting the right to settle permanently on Barrayar for business reasons. In 2951 the Empire passed the University Immigration Act, under which students and professors from Beta Colony and similar worlds were admitted to study and teach at Barrayaran universities; in 2957 Betans and Escobarans with 15 years' residence on Barrayar were allowed to become citizens. The 2958 Revised Migration Act introduced a simpler system for entry. The long period of instability, lasted from 2963-4 to 2974-5, determined the end of the "democratic immigration". In 2980 was introduced the criterion of the political reliability due to the still delicate political situation: immigrants from Beta Colony and other democratic planets, like Escobar, have since slipped down the list. Multiculturalism on Barrayar Multiculturalism on Barrayar has a special cultural status because the world is cradle to four planetary languages and several cultures. Many policies supporting differing cultures have been put in place, for example the requirement of being written in four languages for public documents and administration papers. Contact between people of different cultures on Barrayar has been characterised by quite-spread intolerance and difficult engagement, and in past decades the effects of cultural identity and assimilation have caused riots and street violence. Category:Barrayar